John Muir/Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund Awards $1 Million to Support Health Initiatives For Contra Costa County’s Underserved

Community grant-making arm of John Muir Health has provided more than $23 million to community-based health projects since 1997.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif., January 29, 2015—In late December 2014, the Board of Directors of the John Muir/Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund (CHF) awarded more than $1 million in grants to support eight initiatives that will improve the health and well-being of low-income residents in Central and East Contra Costa County.

The CHF is the community benefit grant-making arm of John Muir Health. In 1997, the CHF was formed by the merger of John Muir Medical Center, Walnut Creek and Mt. Diablo Medical Center, Concord. From 1997-2014, the Fund has granted more than $23 million from John Muir Health to benefit local community-based health projects.

La Clínica de La Raza and Operation Access – two organizations that have worked together to deliver coordinated primary and specialty care services for underserved residents – received two of the largest grants for 2015. The CHF awarded $250,000 to La Clínica to implement the second year of its Contra Costa Nursing Care Expansion Initiative, which aims to improve access to timely assessments and coordinated health care and hospital-to-clinic transitions for patients in Concord, Pittsburg and Oakley. Operation Access will receive $235,000 to support its Contra Costa Specialty Care Initiative, which expands a network of health care nonprofits that deliver free, same-day specialty care services to more than 400 of the county’s uninsured adult patients.

“These organizations and the others we work with play a vital role in patching holes in the health care safety net,” said Lillian Roselin, the CHF’s executive director. “John Muir Health’s financial support and our shared focus on the needs of vulnerable populations combined with the hard, thoughtful work of these nonprofits have made a lasting difference in the lives of thousands of people in our county.”

“We are extremely grateful for the generosity and vision of the CHF,” said Jane Garcia, CEO of La Clínica. “For more than a decade, we have been working together closely to craft innovative and lasting solutions for our clients’ most pressing health care needs."